Over & Under: Most Overrated & Underrated Lip Balm

There are always products that receive endless raves, but they don’t always live up to our expectations or work out as well as they do for others. Share your picks for most overrated and underrated LIP BALM. Don’t forget to share your whats and whys as to your choices!

Most Overrated: [answer]

Most Underrated: [answer]

My Picks

Most Overrated: Burt’s Bees–do not like this product at all! Super drying for me.

Most Underrated: I don’t know if I can say Jack Black Lip Balm, because it’s probably getting to the point where there’s enough buzz on it that it’ll be an option for “overrated.”

Making Money and How to Get Press Samples

These aren’t exactly my favorite topics to talk about, because I think that focusing on them can undermine the genuine passion and effort that a lot of beauty bloggers put into their blogs, but they are certainly important pieces of a larger puzzle. If it’s something you want to do full-time, it has to be a viable full-time job, which means you do need to earn money. There are also expenses like products, equipment, hosting, and technical expertise.

Setting Up, What You Need, How to Get Readers

If you promise not to share it with anyone else, I’ll give you the magic secret to having a successful beauty blog! Are you ready? Remember, don’t tell anyone — I could get into big trouble for spilling all. Okay, the secret is high quality content and hard work pay off. Usually. Sometimes you need something called opportunity. For me, opportunity was coming in like gangbusters during a time when beauty blogging was just gaining its feet; not so early on that brands had no clue what blogs were, but early enough where there were fewer beauty blogs. Opportunity is often seeing what is needed and meeting that need before anyone else does.

It’s a tough nut to crack now. Sometimes, I just want to tell someone not to get into beauty blogging and find another niche that you’re equally passionate about. It’s completely saturated (and some argue over-saturated), which means that becoming successful takes longer and requires more work than it used to. It is not impossible, but it’s unlikely you’ll be an overnight sensation, or even an over-year sensation. If it’s a hobby, just a place for you to periodically share your thoughts, go for it; but if you’re really looking to make something out of it, just be prepared for an uphill battle. If you stick with it, the outcome is totally worth it! Beauty blogging is rather addictive 🙂

Introduction: How I Started

The most frequent question I get (seriously!) is, “How do I start my own blog?” followed by a few questions in the same vein. I’m not always able to answer everyone in detail, so I thought putting together a series of posts would be helpful for those interested, and then I can point future inquiries to a really in-depth answer! 🙂 I thought the best way to start would be to tell you where and how I started, to give you a better idea of who I am, what level of knowledge I have, and how things have changed.

NARS Exhibit A Blush

NARS Exhibit A Blush ($28.00 for 0.16 oz.) is described as a “matte vivid red.” It’s a brightened medium-dark orange-red with a mostly matte finish. MAC Out for Fun is lighter, less red. MAC Modern Mandarin is lighter, more orange, less red. Benefit Cha Cha is more orange, slightly lighter. NARS Liberte is darker, rustier–not as bright. On the cheeks, it can look as bright as the pan, or if applied more softly, you’ll get kind of a orange-coral look almost.

Exhibit A is famous for its pigmentation–it is wow! in the pan, because it’s truly a fiery sight to see in stores, but it’s just as intense when used. Using this shade absolutely requires a feather-light touch and the proper tools (I like a fan brush) as a result, particularly if you are really light in coloring. Because of its excellent pigmentation, it will show up as readily on darker complexions as it will on lighter ones. Even though NARS describes it as red, there’s a lot of orange and not as much red in it as you’d expect. Still, there’s red, there’s orange, but there’s not a lot of yellow–it’s only barely warm in tone.

I think what really makes this shade sing is the texture. It’s soft, silky, and applies smoothly; it’s not too soft that it becomes powdery, but it’s not too dry that it becomes a pain in the behind to blend. It strikes a balance between softness and blendability that is really required with a shade like this. I wore Exhibit A to see how well it would wear, and it lasted a full eight hours and started looking a bit faded after just under nine hours.

Happy Sunday!

There’s been so much to catch up on in the past few days, but it’s been really fun–there are just so many new things as we kick off the fall collections! It’s hard to focus and decide what to test first, what to post about first, so I’m thinking about going with a mish mash of brands and products. Stay tuned! 🙂